Police chiefs lose bid for money to fund prisoner task force

Deputies monitor inmates in high security lock-up at Theo Lacy Jail in Orange. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SANTA ANA – A plan backed by local police chiefs to establish a regional task force to manage inmates released under the state's efforts to ease overcrowding in its prisons was put into limbo Thursday after a committee rejected a request for money to fund the effort.

An Orange County committee tasked with divvying up an estimated $67 million in state money allocated locally in the upcoming fiscal year to cope with the so-called prison inmate realignment voted against increasing the city police departments' share from a little less than 1 percent to 3 percent.

Police chiefs, with the backing of the Orange County District Attorney's Office, had hoped to use the extra funds – approximately $1.4 million – to bankroll the task force, which would have focused on released inmates at a high risk of re-offending.

However, representatives of the county probation department, healthcare agency, sheriff's department and public defenders office all opposed allocating additional funds to city police departments, arguing that other agencies are facing more severe impacts from realignment.

The decision by the committee, known as the Community Corrections Partnership, came despite the Orange County Board of Supervisors recommendation that the police departments receive the additional funds.

Instituted in October 2011 to ease overcrowding in the state prison system, inmate realignment mandated that felons considered to be nonviolent, non-serious and non-sex offenders serve their time in local jails rather than state prison, while eligible offenders released from state prison are supervised by county probation officers rather than state parole officials.

The largest local impact of realignment has fallen on the Orange County Probation Department, which hired new officers to deal with swelling caseloads, and the Orange County Sheriff's Department, which is dealing with an influx of inmates taking up an increasing amount of bed space in county jails.

Local police chiefs argue that they also are seeing an impact from realignment, pointing to a more than 9 percent increase in crime rates countywide after the statewide program went into effect. However, experts caution – and the chiefs acknowledge – that it's too early to say with certainty whether realignment is solely to blame for the increase in crime.

Citing that uncertainty, a majority of the Community Corrections Partnership in late February voted to reduce the funds set aside for local law enforcement from 3 percent to 1 percent. The vote by the Board of Supervisors urging the partnership to reconsider their decision came earlier this month.

Local police agencies have used past realignment money from the state to fund sweeps targeting realignment offenders who live within their communities, making sure they abide by the terms of their supervision, and that they live where they claim to live.

In recent months, local chiefs have advocated moving to a regional approach, arguing that realignment offenders often cross city and even county lines to commit crimes. The chiefs compared the regional push to successful multi-agency task forces that have focused on gang violence, auto thefts and narcotics crimes.

"There is no one looking at what is happening on a countywide level," said Garden Grove Police Chief Kevin Raney, who represents local police agencies on the Community Corrections Partnership. "The reality of this is that this population is going to re-offend, as much as we want to rehabilitate them."

Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens acknowledged that property crime is on the rise, but indicated that factors other than realignment, such as a drop in the number of officers on the streets, may be playing a role.

Hutchens said her department is facing its own financial challenges, with the costs of housing realignment offenders in the jails leading to a $10 million deficit between the amount of state money the sheriff's department was allocated for realignment's impacts this year and their actual costs, forcing the county to cover the difference.

The sheriff's department is also dealing with an unrelated decrease in the number of detainees being held in local jails as part of a lucrative contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Hutchens attributed the drop in ICE detainees, which officials estimate costing the department $500,000 a month in lost revenue, to the federal agency' own budget concerns.

Deputies monitor inmates in high security lock-up at Theo Lacy Jail in Orange. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Inmates go about their business at Theo Lacy Jail in Orange. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Inmates go about their business at Theo Lacy Jail in Orange. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
An inmate in high security lock-up at Theo Lacy Jail makes a phone call. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Inmates go about their business at Theo Lacy Jail in Orange. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
An inmate in high security lock-up at Theo Lacy Jail makes a phone call. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Low-level inmates clear out of a walkway for passing deputies at Theo Lacy Jail in Orange. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
This mess hall at Theo Lacy Jail can accommodate approximately 300 inmates. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Low-level inmates do daily chores at Theo Lacy Jail in Orange. JOSHUA SUDOCK, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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